The Cost of a "NO SHOW"

Yesterday I had a referral from another doctor stating that they had a patient that needed several teeth extracted and was in severe pain. I told my Office manager to have the patient come in at 8:30 AM today. 8:30, no patient, 9:00 no patient. The patient was a No-Show. I've had No-Shows before but today it really got to me, today was supposed to be an off day for me. I was to stay home with my daughter who recently had her tonsils removed. Instead I brought her to the office with me to take care of a patient who was supposedly in "SEVERE" pain... and he never showed up.

When I speak of cost it's not necessarily the financial aspect, it is the lost time. When a patient fails to show up for an appointment, it wastes my time, my staffs time and other patients time. The time wasted could have been used on a patient who values their health care and appointments.

I know things happen and there are times in which appointments have to be broken. It just seems that out of respect for my time, or just as a plain common courtesy, that patients would at least call and let us know. We do our best at my office to try to stay on time. All we ask is that some patients respect our time as well.

For our patients that make their scheduled appointments and are on time I would like to say thank you. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Chandler
www.edmondsmiles.com